


5 Things That Made Neil’s Christmas (More Than) Okay

by ApprenticedMagician



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: 5 Things, Christmas Fluff, Implied/Referenced Abuse from Canon, M/M, Snowball Fight, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 09:45:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12981408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApprenticedMagician/pseuds/ApprenticedMagician
Summary: Neil Josten's first go-round at Christmas wasn't anything he wanted to remember. His family is going to make sure his second go-round is much merrier.A gift for tycutiovevo!





	5 Things That Made Neil’s Christmas (More Than) Okay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tycutiovevo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tycutiovevo/gifts).



> Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to @[tycutiovevo](http://tycutiovevo.tumblr.com/)! This is your gift for the AFTG Winter Exchange! I hope you enjoy it - the snowball fight was especially handled with care ^w^

 

  1. **Peppermint**



Andrew was waiting in the hall outside his last exam. He had two take-away cups in hand, which was easily the most pleasant thing about Neil’s morning. But then Neil saw his eyes and nearly hesitated for a half-step. Andrew’s regular dead-eyed stare was somehow… _accusing_. Or at least assessing and more watchful than usual.

Neil must have forgotten something.

“What’s the occasion?” he asked carefully, wracking his memory for post-exam plans that Andrew might have mentioned. Everything was coming up blank. Well, everything aside from Allison’s plans that is, but those wouldn’t come into effect until December 26th.

“No occasion,” Andrew drawled. “Just keeping an eye on you.”

Oh. So that was it.

Andrew didn’t need to say that he was making sure Neil wouldn’t be sneaking off to ‘visit any uncles’ this year. Likewise, Neil didn’t need to say he was grateful that Andrew was here for him; the nightmares of last year didn’t linger long when he woke up to hear Andrew breathing beside him. He hoped his company was a similar comfort for Andrew, rather than a trigger into memories worse than nightmares.

Shaking off the dark topic, Andrew handed him one of the cups and toasted, “To your freedom.”

Neil took it gratefully and rose it to his lips to hide his smile.

But when a strong and unusual flavour assaulted his taste buds, Neil almost dropped the whole thing and had to stop himself from spitting it out. Andrew was drinking from his own cup but Neil could see from his eyes that he was smiling like he had last year, when every other lie out of Neil’s mouth was a source of amusement for him.

“What the hell is this?!” Neil sputtered, wiping his chin in case of dribbling and his lips in case the awful flavour remained.

“Oops,” Andrew said, mischief written all over his face and not the least bit sincere, “must have been the wrong one. Here,” he offered the other cup, which Neil took with significantly more suspicion.

Slowly, he raised the cup to his nose and gave a couple sniffs. No trace of that odd smell from before – just a regular coffee scent. He sipped. A simple coffee with milk, his regular order, but it was distorted somewhat by the aftertaste still sitting on his tongue.

It was, Neil realized, not unlike a time in his youth when he had sneaked a glass of orange juice after brushing his teeth.

“Is there _mint_ in yours?!” Neil asked, with some horror.

“Peppermint,” Andrew corrected, and proceeded to chug a large portion of his _peppermint monstrosity_ right in front of Neil’s offended eyes. “’Tis the season, rabbit. Get used to it. This is all I’ll be drinking for the next two weeks.”

Later, Neil still wasn’t convinced peppermint mochas _weren’t_ a secret ploy to ruin everything about the holidays, but a few more spine-tingling kisses sent his way were going a long way to persuade him otherwise. (As were the hard peppermint candies Andrew liked to pass him, from mouth to mouth.)

* * *

 

  1. **Fairy Lights**



The plan had been to drive to Columbia while there was daylight but that plan had been scrapped when Kevin and Aaron’s three-hour history exam got rescheduled to 5PM. They were meant to be out of the dorms that day though, so the gang packed up the Maserati that evening and set out for the highway after sundown.

Nicky nagged Andrew for ten minutes about going slow in the dark on roads that might be icy; Andrew pretended to ignore him but never went above the posted speed limit. It was enough of a concession to relax Nicky into taking a quick nap, exhausted as he was from the stress of exams. Kevin and Aaron followed close behind him, similarly zapped of energy.

The drive was quiet. Uneventful, even, but Andrew’s hand found Neil’s and stayed there, fingers interlocked and occasionally tapping out the rhythm of the music singing through the radio. Neil just looked at Andrew like he was wonderful.

For once, Andrew didn’t stop him.

Neil thought he must be in a good mood.

It wasn’t until they passed Columbia’s city limits that Neil moved his gaze elsewhere – several passing houses, buildings, and trees were strung with fairy lights, the sheer number of which he had never seen. There were all different colours: some that changed, some that sang along to carols, some that were unimaginatively hung, others that were tasteful. Some homes even sprang inflatables and other yard decorations, reindeer or snowmen or Santa Clauses.

Neil was mesmerized and he couldn’t understand it. This wasn’t the first time he had seen fairy lights. Even the neighbours in Baltimore had participated in handing a few strings up; Mary had once driven him around the neighbourhood so he could see them all. But still there was something… something special about the lights that lit up Columbia. Something about the sheer number of them…

“Are there any lights at the house?” He asked, careful not to tear his gaze away lest he miss this innocent bit of Christmas magic.

Andrew threw him a glance, (stiffly ignored the image Neil cut, highlighted by coloured LED) and said, “Might be a few strings in the garage. Nicky knows for sure.”

Neil smiled and squeezed his hand. If the weather was good tomorrow, maybe their house could join in on the Christmas spirit.

* * *

 

  1. **Snow Days**



It was strange for anyone else to be awake as early as Neil was. Even stranger for it to be Nicky, and even _stranger_ for Nicky to be cheerful and capable of speech, given the early hour.

“Ah-ah-ah,” he quietly tutted, wagging a finger at Neil, who was lacing up his shoes. “No morning run for you, mister. It’s been declared a snow day and that means the sidewalks might be icy – better not risk our star striker, hey?”

Neil blinked in confusion. “ _Snow_ day??”

Nicky was happy to explain, “It’s a day where everything gets cancelled thanks to the snow!”

Neil rolled his eyes. “I know what a snow day is, Nicky. I just don’t understand why today _is_ one – we haven’t even had that much snow.”

Nicky, unconvinced, drew back the blinds on a window. The outside world was still dim and dark but the freshly sparkling snow was clearly visible. “It’s nearly six inches out there!” He argued.

“So?” Neil shrugged, “When I was in Montreal we woke up one day to sixty centimeters of snow.”

Nickly tilted his head, trying to do the conversion but coming up short. Finally, he asked, “Is that a lot?”

“Yeah, it’s like… twenty-three and a half inches.”

“ _Oh_.” Nicky’s eyes bugged for a minute, probably imagining it. “Well, snow days in Columbia happen at six inches! So get out of your sneakers, go back upstairs, and cuddle with Andrew or… whatever you two do to bond.”

Part of Neil was itching to go running anyway, but Nicky did have a point about icy sidewalks. Besides, cuddling with Andrew in bed wasn’t something Neil was interested in arguing his way out of.

Unlacing, Neil asked, “Did you really just get up to keep me from going out?”

Nicky shook his head, his bedhead flopping into his eyes. “Nah, I was actually thinking I’d make us pancakes. It’s something Erik’s mom does when they get to stay in. It’d be nice to have a treat.”

Nicky probably didn’t realize the face he was making at the mention of Erik, all lovesick and happy. Neil wondered if he looked anything like that when he talked about Andrew.

“You should call him,” Neil suggested, as he carefully avoided the squeaky spots on the stairs. When Nicky hummed, he clarified, “Erik. To keep you company.”

Nicky shot him a smile worth a thousand watts and Neil left it at that, slipping back into Andrew’s room as quietly as he could.

Andrew was, of course, awake anyway though still curled up in bed. Beady eyes held questions back as they watched Neil approach, casually stripping off layers of winter running gear as he went.

Once he was settled under the covers again, Neil happily reported, “Nicky says it’s a snow day.”

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “Couldn’t get out the door?”

Neil laughed. “Please, it’s only six inches. He’s just worried about ice is all.”

Because he was still sleepy, Andrew let out an uncontrolled snort. “Ice isn’t what makes a snow day.”

“That’s what _I_ said! Well, more or less. But still,” he scooched a little closer, edging away from his side of the bed which was _just_ this side of not warm enough. “No harm done if it means more time with you.”

Hopefully it was dim enough that Andrew couldn’t see the blush on Neil’s face, but Neil was rarely so lucky.

“What makes you think I want you here?” Andrew quipped, a little rhetorical, since a sneaky arm was slithering its way around Neil’s waist and pulling him in closer.

Pleased, Neil ran his fingers from shoulder to jaw, paying careful attention to sensitive spots he could revisit later. “Say the word and I’ll leave.”

The arm tightened its hold. “Don’t be stupid.” Neil took the liberty to hitch his own leg behind Andrew’s knees, an echo of Andrew’s unspoken _Stay_.

“I’m never stupid,” he teased, closing his eyes and yawning his way back to sleep.

* * *

 

  1. **Snowball Fights**



Per the agreement all Foxes would reconvene in Columbia before flying out to Allison’s mystery holiday for them, Matt, Dan and Renee arrived at the house mid-Christmas morning. Nicky returned to the waffle iron to cook up some fresh waffles for the extra company; Renee went along to keep him company and fix up the cider recipe she had brought from home. (Andrew perked up at the mention of cider and followed shortly after to investigate.)

Dan and Matt gravitated to Neil, bearing a couple gifts for him and wishing him a ‘Merry Christmas’ before Matt got distracted by the new video game Aaron had gotten.

When he came back from changing into the fox hoodie Dan had bought him (complete with ears on the hood and paw prints on the sleeves), she and Kevin were in the middle of a conversation.

“You mean you managed to stay away from an exy court for four whole days?” Dan asked, almost looking impressed.

Kevin nearly pouted. “Not from lack of trying,” he admitted. Neil nodded along. It wasn’t that they couldn’t have gone by themselves, but Neil wasn’t willing to separate himself from Andrew this year and Andrew had refused to go with them. Kevin and Neil just had to deal with their itches.

“Well, it won’t do any good letting our star strikers lose their edge,” Dan exclaimed, slapping both their backs. “Foxes! I call for a mandatory snowball fight!”

“Now?? What about the waffles?”

“Later, Hemmick! Waffles are for champions!”

-

Once they were all outside, Dan attempted to split them into two teams but was interrupted by a snowball to the face. When Renee laughed and ducked behind Neil to avoid the retaliation, Andrew threw back a snowball to Dan as revenge, which Matt gallantly took for her only to have snow dumped down his jacket by Dan herself.

It devolved from there into a free-for-all snow war.

Matt scrambled away from the party, jumping around and shaking his coat, trying to get the snow out of it. Appeased, Dan let him run and returned to trying to hit Renee, who kept abusing Neil as a human shield no matter how Neil ducked or weaved or twisted on her – Renee might as well have been his shadow. Finally, he put on a burst of speed to outpace her, except once he was free, Dan kept aiming to hit him anyway.

“That’s dirty play, Wilds!”

“Life is dirty, Josten!”

Renee laughed at that and tossed another precisely aimed snowball to Dan’s wild hair, distracting their captain and attracting her wrath. Neil, grateful to have been rescued, threw one to Dan’s back, who turned to shoot him the most betrayed look he had ever seen her give.

“Who’s playing dirty now, hypocrite?”

Shrugging, Neil grinned and bent to round up another snowball while Renee distracted her – piggy in the middle was always fun when he wasn’t the pig.

Meanwhile, Kevin was in trouble; Nicky and Matt ganged up on him, using their honed backliner teamwork to corner Kevin by the fence, where Aaron, who had nimbly climbed the biggest tree in the yard, gave a hard whack to the branches above. Nicky whooped, cheered, and slapped Matt with a high five; Kevin’s dark hair almost couldn’t be seen through the pile of snow that landed on his head. His glare was perfectly visible though, and Aaron had to scramble even higher up the tree once Kevin began jumping for his legs.

“Get down here, you bastard!”

“Don’t think I will, thanks.”

A snowball to the shoulder drew Kevin’s attention away from the twin in the tree. Nicky was rhythmically tossing another ball in the air as a threat. “Did you forget about us, Kevin?”

No longer afraid he’d be forcibly dragged from the tree, Aaron turned his attention to Neil, who had just missed Dan and hit Renee by accident. He scooped up some snow that hadn’t been dislodged by his climbing and pulled back to aim when he heard, “Don’t even think about it, Aaron.”

He looked down to meet his brother’s eyes. Andrew was serious. Straight-faced, Aaron threw his snowball at him instead. Andrew took one step aside and avoided it. Growling under his breath, Aaron lifted his leg to kick at a branch above Andrew’s head. Andrew glared and said, “You wouldn’t dare.”

Aaron didn’t bother hesitating. When Andrew tried to sidestep the whole snowfall as well, Matt surprised him with a snowball to the chest, which let Aaron fire a second snowball that hit its mark, right on the back of Andrew’s neck, dripping ice cold snowflakes down his shirt.

“I am destroying all of your presents, Aaron!”

The threat earned Andrew a second snowball to his already shivering neck. Unwilling to get any wetter, Andrew stomped away towards the house; this called for the hottest and most chocolate-y of hot chocolates.

On his way he had to pass the warzone made by Dan, Neil, and Renee. Neil saw him passing and checked in, “You okay?”

Andrew snapped, “I’m miserable,” but it didn’t seem to bother Neil too much. Andrew saw his eyes locked on his neck, which was probably red and shining from the wet; Neil was probably taking stock of the damages and planning how to sooth it all later, which was absolutely foolish.

No, really. Completely foolish.

It left him open to the full-body tackle that Dan leveled him with.

“Gotcha!” she cried in triumph!

“Dan,” Neil said, pinned beneath her body and trying to bargain, knowing his very life could be at stake, “Dan, c’mon, Dan, let’s be reasonable about this!”

It didn’t stop her from smashing two handfuls of snow into his face and his squirming laughter didn’t encourage a rescue or intervention from Andrew. Neil figured that was just as well – now they would both have cold spots to warm up.

* * *

 

  1. **Mountain Vacations**



No one had given Allison enough credit for planning out this expedition for them. The Foxes had expected a few things upon her announcement that a trip had been booked for all of them spanning the six days between Christmas and New Years. Expectations included: extravagance, a beach, a place rented entirely to themselves, and round-the-clock access to food.

Turns out, they had been mostly right but they hadn’t anticipated being lavished with quite _this_ much luxury.

Allison had arranged reservations for them at the Omni Hotel in the Virginia mountains (so no beach). What it _did_ have was a pool fed by two natural hot springs (which were significantly rarer than beaches).

“Right then!”

Not waiting for any of them to pick their jaws off the lobby floor, Allison whirled around to present key cards. “We’ve got five suites, so two to a room. I propose the couples room next to each other so that not all of us are kept awake by the sounds of mountain love-romping.” She tossed a key Andrew’s way, which he caught without difficulty, and another key to Matt, who also caught it and looked very proud. “Are there any opposed? Good, moving on,” she hadn’t given space for any complaints, though with Allison pulling the strings, Kevin was the only one likely to find fault with it. “Rooms are 212 through 216. We unpack and meet at the hot tub in half an hour.”

Then she clapped her hands and said, “Vamoose, Foxies!”

She was in a _very_ good mood. Neil wondered if something had happened over the days she spent at home and made a mental note to ask her about it later.

The rooms were expectedly lavish, but the real treasure was the view of the mountain range outside their window. It took Neil’s breath away and even Andrew too took a full two minutes to take in the view. The next thing Andrew did was fall facedown on the bed; Neil knew he must be exhausted from the flight, which had been early, long, and stressful.

It was enough to draw him to Andrew’s side. “So,” he said, “will it do?”

Andrew groaned and grunted and peeked one eye Neil’s way, asking for clarification.

“The mattress.” When the stare remained unchanged, Neil put on a lewd smile and clarified, “For everything you want to do me, I mean.”

Andrew’s focus sharpened and he raised himself on his elbows so he could say, “You presume there’s anything I _want_ to do to you.”

Neil shrugged, unconcerned, and stretched himself out beside Andrew, letting all his shirt layers slide up his stomach. He watched Andrew’s eyes rove for a second, before Andrew mentally slapped himself and shot an accusing glare Neil’s way.

Pleased, Neil purred, “If you’re out of ideas, I have a list of things _I_ want you to do to me.”

Andrew’s pupils dilated. They _actually_ dilated, and Neil had caught them doing it. He grinned, unable to help himself and rolled away the _second_ before Andrew pounced, laughing as he ran and Andrew gave chase.

They were late to the hot tub. But Neil’s list had an item or two crossed off it so neither of them were really complaining.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
